I know there's not much to smile about after yesterday's game, but I've been waist deep in these Chad debates for about 5 weeks now, so I'd like to talk about something else.... So here are the few good things I took out of yesterday's game... #1) D'Brickashaw Ferguson was a very good draft pick. Unless he takes a huge step backwards, Brick is proving to be worth the #4 pick in the draft... In consecutive weeks he shut down Jason Taylor, Aaron Shobel, and Osi Umenyiora.... Yeah, Osi had a sack, but I put that on miscommunication between Brick and Clarke... You could tell, Brick wasn't beaten on that sack... He used one arm and shoved Osi to the inside, assumedly expecting either Clarke or somebody else on the inside to pick him up.... I haven't seen one of those plays where Brick is outright beaten since week 1... I'm very happy with his progress, and our pass-blocking has improved dramatically as he has progressed... #2) Brad Smith is developing into a very viable #3 WR. He made a few excellent catches yesterday. The one 11 yard throw over the middle was largely overlooked, but that was an incredible catch.. He must be getting some pointers from Coles and Cotchery. Thank God we don't have to see any more passes to McCareins this year..... This WR tandem of Coles, Cotchery and Smith is EASILY our best units, and one of the most underrated WR corps in the league... #3) The defense generated a good pass-rush and forced a couple TOs in the 1st half.... Unfortunately, we went into our conservative, laid back defensive shell for the second half and were dismantled, but the first half was very encouraging for me. Shaun Ellis played an excellent game yesterday, consistently collapsing the pocket. There were a few Bryan Thomas sightings as well (finally)... Victor Hobson proved, once again, he is our best blitzing LB, getting to Manning twice, forcing an errant throw and a grounding penalty.... We brought Rhodes as well once, and he disputed the play.... I don't know why we go away from this strategy in the 2nd half, but the defensive play in the 1st half had me smiling, and was the only reason we were in that game at half time... #4) Leon Washington. Ladies and Gentlemen, we are the best kick returning team in football over the last 5-10 years. From Aaron Glenn, to Chad Morton, to Justin Miller, and now to Leon Washington, we consistently put out big-play threats at KR. Mark my words, Leon will be in the Pro Bowl this season as a KR, and, you know what? I think he's even faster than Miller.... I haven't seen a guy break away from a coverage team so quickly as I saw Leon do it yesterday.... He got separation like I haven't seen ever before.... It's reall incredible to watch.... Feel free to add your own positives.....
Eric Smith played pretty well in his first start yesterday. If he stays healthy, I wouldn't be surprised to see him take over the job outright...
Another postive is Revis. Unless my eyes deceived me it looked like he was on Burress in the first half and really shut him down. Dyson took him on in the 2nd and that's when Burress got his catches and yards. Again, unless I saw it incorrectly Revis put together another nice game.
That's a good call... I was watching with a bunch of Giants fans, and they kept saying they couldn't understand how Plax wasn't getting open in the 1st half.... I think a large part of that was Revis and Rhodes bracketing him. Also a big part of our success rushing the passer I'd assume, as the 1st half pass coverage was excellent
I just wanted to add that our o-line as a whole was very good in pass protection against one of the better pass rush teams in the league - not just D'Brick.
Yeah, Leon, O-line to a certain degree (glad Mangold is tough), Coles looked awesome and Brad Smith looked good. On the D side it is tough to say. I think a formidable line would go a long way to making our D look a lot better.
